Harvin: I'm ready to play ball

Percy Harvin missed most of training camp while dealing with severe migraines following the death of his grandmother. Harvin, however, said that his conditioning is normal and he ran every play with the first-team offense in Sunday’s practice.

“I’m ready to play ball,” he said.

Harvin expressed optimism about his new plan for dealing with his migraines. He met with specialists and had a battery of tests performed after collapsing on the field and being hospitalized overnight during camp.

“There’s no miracle solution for them,” he said. “The people I talked to had them for 40-plus years. My mom had them for 35 years and is just now growing out of them. It’s just something you got to hope to maintain. Playing contact football may not be the best thing. I think we have a great plan.”

Harvin said he is more aware of the different factors that can trigger his migraines.

“They can vary from the change in weather to the pollen,” he said. “Different people get them for different reasons. You have to kind of manipulate everything you do leading up to the headache and try and backtrack to see what you ate different or something you did different. We’re trying to find just the little things that I don’t pay attention to like different salts in foods.”

Harvin said stress likely has played a role in causing his migraines since he arrived in the NFL.

“I don’t control them as much as I should,” he said. “As far as being in the league, different things I put on my shoulders that I shouldn’t whether it’s family, trying to take care of everybody or just different things that come my way where I should just push them to the side. I want to be the cure for everybody in my family and I was causing a lot of that stress on myself. I finally put all that to the side and hopefully that will help a little bit.”

Matt Vensel is in his first year at the Star Tribune after covering the Ravens for the Baltimore Sun for six years. He is a Pittsburgh native and a Penn State grad. Follow him at @mattvensel.

Mark Craig has covered the NFL for 23 years, and the Vikings since 2003 for the Star Tribune. He is one of 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. Follow him at @markcraignfl.

Master Tesfatsion is the Star Tribune’s digital Vikings writer. He is a 2013 graduate of Arizona State and worked for mlb.com before arriving in Minneapolis. Follow him at @masterstrib.